Blogged: In which I talk very fast on TV

About a week before Christmas, I did an on-camera interview with the producer for On the Red Dot , a local current affairs programme that was preparing an episode on Singapore culture and what makes one Singaporean. Because I'm a writer, we thought about doing the interview at a library or bookstore, but eventually, they decided to just shoot it in the Toa Payoh neighbourhood where I live. All in all, the shoot took over two hours about various things Singaporean, but in the episode I appear for just a few minutes. It was broadcast this past Wednesday and Saturday nights, and you can watch it online at the xinmsn website (I can't embed the video). I appear from 0:57 to 3:16, talking about Singlish, and I like that they used this part: It’s quite lyrical in the sound, it conveys a lot with very few words, it’s very economical. And it just has a really nice sort of rhythm to...